The conference provided local businesses with the opportunity to hear from top-tier speakers including Magda Szubanski, Greg Boase, Stan Gallo, Lynda Hailey, and Dr Jared Cooney-Horvath. More than 200 people attended.

“It was an awe-inspiring event,” Julie said. “I left inspired, informed and supported in my role as a business advisor, that requires regular professional development.”

Magna Szubanski inspired listeners with her talk about making things happen, and generating energy from starting something.

“If you tell someone your idea and they don’t like it, you are telling the wrong person,” she said. “Build it until it comes.”​

Business Advisor Julie Broad was inspired by the Future Proof Peel Business Conference

Greg Boase of Boase and Associates talked about profitable relationships during the Industry Leaders Panel. He told the audience how 7 per cent of what we say is rapport, 38 per cent is our tone and 55 per cent is our body language. He stressed the importance of having testimonials across all platforms.A panel of four then spoke about the future of agriculture in the region, including Paula from Grubsup, Maree Gooch from Chris Wireless, John Mitchell from Livestock Transport and Adrian Parker from PDC.

Forensic Cyber Specialist Stan Gallo from KPMG spoke about cyber security, and the lack of awareness inside companies on the importance of reporting and dealing with breaches.“User education is a top priority and businesses are no longer safe ignoring this as part of their systems control,” he said.

He recommended `Cyber News’ as a great resource to learn what is going on in the space of Cyber Security.

Linda Hailey from ‘Your Business, Your Future’, shared her knowledge of being in small business today. She talked about the fact that most of us do not growing up saying we want to own a small business - we grow up saying we want to be a fireman or policeman or nurse or teacher. She advocated working on your business, not in it, with tools like a vision board and future org charts so that you know what you are aiming towards.

University of Melbourne Neuroscientist Dr Jared Cooney-Horvath was an exceptional speaker, who had the entire audience spell-bound with his presentation about retaining relationships by knowing what the other person wants.

He talked about our front lobe conductor being a coder which can be changed at any time.

“Stories drive your coder, and concepts drive perceptions,” he said. “Company stories lead to defining who you are. This becomes your values and who what you stand for. The only future proof skill is learning.”

Last but not least, Political Economist Dr Angus Hervey and Big Data Scientist Tane Hunter from FutureCrunch.com spoke about the future. They showed the world is getting better (despite what the media portrays). They help organisations navigate the future, and are your field guides for the next economy. Their mission is to foster intelligent, optimistic thinking about the future, and to empower people to contribute to it.​Future Proof Peel was great – we highly recommend attending the next event in 2020.